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Echinops (Globe Thistle): Architectural Blue Spheres for Sun & Lean Soil

Bold Texture, Easy Care

Echinops (EK-in-ops) forms clumps of spiny, gray-green leaves topped by steel-blue, perfectly spherical flower heads in mid-to-late summer. Bees and butterflies adore them; deer ignore them.

Growing Tips

Sun: Full sun to partial shade.
Soil: Average, well-drained; excellent drainage critical in the South.
Maintenance: Cut stems to the ground after bloom for tidiness and a possible second flush (unreliable in hot climates).

About Garden: Best Roses for South Florida's Heat and Humidity: Disease-Resistant Varieties That Thrive; Growing Alcea (Hollyhock): Tall Spires for Sunny Borders; Growing Aster (Michaelmas Daisy); Growing Boltonia: Easy Care for Late-Summer Blooms; Growing Bluebeard (Caryopteris): Late-Summer Blooms for Sun & Drought; Echinops (Globe Thistle): Architectural Blue Spheres for Sun & Lean Soil; Growing Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena): Heat-Loving Annual for Cut & Dried Flowers; Growing Lavatera (Tree Mallow): Shrubby Annual/Short-Lived Perennial; Growing Stokesia (Stokes' Aster): Southern Perennial; Growing Globe Artichokes in Georgia: Annual Culture North of Macon

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